Jul 08, 2006

Doomsday to Fore

A joint review of the Army of Ghosts / Doomsday two-parter

In every battle there are casualties. In every war, there
are heroes. Heroism means little or nothing, however, unless it is thrown into
sharp relief by tragedy and sadness. When the two greatest alien races in the
history of Doctor Who come together for the ultimate showdown, it
follows that all of these qualities are going to be present for those who are
caught in the crossfire – the Doctor, his companion, their friends, family and
associates. Planet Earth. The universe.

The
most mouth-watering of scenarios, one many fans have dreamed and speculated
about but until now not even the maddest of mad Big Finish writers dared try
and put together – Daleks versus Cybermen.

As Doctor Who fans, we usually tend to judge ‘eras’
of the show more in terms of production personnel, specifically the producers,
than the on-screen staff, aside of course from the Doctors. With the climactic Army
of Ghosts and Doomsday two-parter, however, we have an epic finale
not just to the second series of the new Doctor Who but, despite the
Tenth Doctor and the production team all remaining in place, to an era that
began back with Rose that wonderful night in March 2005. The ‘Tyler
era’, if you will.

Rose is gone, and with her having left it’s hard not to
think we have also seen the last of Jackie, Mickey and Pete as well, for better
or for worse. Doctor Who, after a never dull first two years back on
air, once again has to reinvent itself, change, adapt and wow us all over again in a
whole new world of raised expectations and high definition viewing.

But such things are for the future. What of the present? The
most mouth-watering of scenarios, one many fans have dreamed and speculated
about but until now not even the maddest of mad Big Finish writers dared try
and put together – Daleks versus Cybermen.

It’s hard not to feel lifted, elated even by that
cliffhanger at the end of the first episode. It’s a great moment, even if you
knew or had guessed what was inside that Voidship – I mean, it’s the Daleks,
for goodness sake! Arriving to kick some Cyber backside! How could that not be
exciting? One of those real punch-the-air moments akin to, say, Earthshock
episode one. This show can be deep, it can be thought-provoking and it can have
moments of calm reflection, but we all know that it’s the moments like these
that burn themselves onto children’s brains and the collective popular
consciousness, and make our little fanboy chests swell with pride and
excitement.

Personally, this excitement was added to by the thought of
‘Hurrah! A proper enemy is arriving!’ Because, as I think I have said before, I
deeply dislike the Cybermen. I think they’re frankly a bit rubbish, and they’ve
never made an impression on me as any kind of meaningful threat or exciting
presence in a storyline – aside possible from the aforementioned Earthshock
– so I was glad to see that the Big Boys had arrived to boot them out of the
picture and make bloody war.

Personally, this excitement was added to by the thought of
‘Hurrah! A proper enemy is arriving!’ Because, as I think I have said before, I
deeply dislike the Cybermen.

Russell T Davies couldn’t resist having them throw some insults at
each other about who was best. As a serious person trying to write a serious
review of the episode I should disapprove strongly of this sort of daft meta
business, but given it had me grinning hugely to myself I don’t feel as if I
have the right to complain! Seeing the Cybermen hopelessly gunned down by the
four Daleks – one Dalek would be enough, don’t forget! – also raised a smile.
For those who are fonder of the Cybermen than I it was perhaps disappointing to
see them turned into mere cannon-fodder as soon as the Premier League bad guys
showed up – even humanity managed to blow one of them to bits, for goodness
sake – but with so much to cram into these episodes not every element was ever
going to receive the time and space it deserved.

I am, of course, jumping ahead. It wasn’t simply the great
meeting of these two Who icons that Russell T Davies had to wrestle with
– he had to pick up on and make sense of all the Torchwood references we have
been getting all year, and that have driven so many fans half barmy.

Torchwood turns out to be run by Yvonne Hartman, and as my
friend Tim pointed out in an e-mail to me immediately after Army of Ghosts
was transmitted, it seems the organisation for all its boasts is actually so
under-funded it can’t even afford to provide its director with a shirt. What
with Yvonne’s jiggling and Rose and Jackie’s efforts in New Earth and Rise
of the Cybermen respectively, you do perhaps have to wonder whether the
over-arching plot arc or this season has been not in fact the Torchwood
Institute but gratuitous cleavage shots.

When not busy thrusting her chest in the direction of
anybody who will look, Yvonne is actually quite a good character – not the
ice-cold bitch I had been expecting her to be, but actually quite fun and a
little scatty, albeit slightly mad and a little obsessive with it. Torchwood
itself looks like a cross between the Area 51 set-up from Independence Day
and the BBC Television Centre props store circa 1975. Like Buffy the Vampire
Slayer’s similar ‘Initiative’ organisation in season four of that
programme, you suspect that they simply lacked the money and the scale to be
able to make it look as good as it ought to, although the idea of it being
hidden in Canary Wharf is quite a clever one.

Torchwood
itself looks like a cross between the Area 51 set-up from Independence Day
and the BBC Television Centre props store circa 1975.

Less clever, and in fact a rather dubious piece of scripting
by Davies, is the idea that this ultra-secret alien-bothering organisation
could allow some building works to be going on right in their midst without
anybody having the slightest clue that the Cybermen have set up camp down there
and are snaffling up Torchwood employees as they head off for their
coffee-and-kissing breaks.

Let’s face it, this is an organisation with a security
system so slack that not only do they allow any passing cybernetic life form
from a parallel universe to sneak in, but they also let Mickey set up shop
undercover as a scientist. I was very pleased and not a little surprised by
Clarke’s reappearance in Army of Ghosts, incidentally revealed in a nice
shot over Doctor Singh’s back by Graeme Harper. Possibly more through luck than
judgement – I had even looked at the Radio Times listing before the
episode aired and completely missed his name in the credits – I had no idea
that Mickey was returning for the grand finale. He lost out somewhat in Doomsday
as Pete and Jake also returned to squeeze him out of the plot somewhat, and
Rose’s departure at the end meant neither he nor Jackie got the farewells to
the show they deserved, but proving that he has come a long, long way since the
bumbling fool of Rose was perhaps enough.

Even Yvonne got to display a bravery when Doomsday
came around – I was actually pretty heartbroken when the poor old Torchwood
director was turned into a Cyberman, and it was quite a relief to see that her
bloody-minded devotion to Queen and Country had left her with enough marbles
rolling around in her head to provide a remarkable convenient blockade to the
Cybermen about to ruin the Doctor’s plan. Also rather too convenient was Pete
hopping back in the nick-of-time to rescue Rose from being sucked into the
void. These niggles leave an uncomfortable sense of corner-cutting that just
stops this two-parter from being up there with the very best of Doctor Who,
although then again, if you’re going to start pulling adventure fiction apart
for nick-of-time rescues then you’re going to bring the whole genre crashing
down like a game of ker-plunk.

If you’re going to start pulling adventure fiction apart
for nick-of-time rescues then you’re going to bring the whole genre crashing
down like a game of ker-plunk.

I wasn’t the only one to be less than thrilled with the
rescue, however – poor old Rose herself was also left pretty devastated to be
trapped on the wrong side of the void. Rose was always going to get an
emotional send-off, and even though the Pete-less Jackie and Jackie-less Pete
always seemed likely to end up together from right back in the first Cybermen
two-parter of the season, Rose and Mickey ending up trapped in the alternative
universe was less expected. In some ways, Rose has ended up with the same life
she had before she met the Doctor – a job, Mickey as her boyfriend, her mum…

But she’s gained so much more. Not simply through travelling
and experiencing so much of the universe with the Doctor, and learning about
how to live a better life from him. Not simply from having a better job because
of it all, or finding some sort of inner happiness and peace. But because she
had her father back, and the stable nuclear family that you sense she probably
always wanted all along. That’s what she was searching for with the Doctor, and
why she became so deeply attached to him, and why it was always her personal
tragedy that she could never have him. She loved him, but she could never have
that fully-rounded life with him.

Nor he her, although it’s doubtful whether he loved her in
the same way. He was snatched away – by the fanboy tractor beam, you might
speculate! – before he was able to say it. He had to leave her behind for good,
in Bad Wolf Bay, over and done with but perhaps finally at some sort of peace.

He was snatched away – by the fanboy tractor beam, you might
speculate! – before he was able to say it.

As with so many endings, however, even when it seems to be
so final there is still a glimpse of how life can carry on afterwards, how some
future point can pick up the threads. For here, through a coincidence of
casting and a young actress seizing her chance to impress the programme’s
producers, the future of Doctor Who has been glimpsed like a Watcher
preceding a regeneration. Freema Agyeman may have played only a small part in Army
of Ghosts, but she has a much bigger role – literally – to perform in the
future of the series.

I for one cannot wait to see this future. Especially given the rather
fun cliffhanger ending – Catherine Tate? Runaway Bride?

My question is - do the timelords only exist in the Whoniverse? What about in this other reality - was there a Time War - is there an alternative Doctor flying around in a different TARDIS. Do I think too much?

Ohhh, that would definitely sound like a "Get Gallifrey out of jail free!" card...just as well they were so conclusive about the rift being permanently sealed otherwise they could really abuse that parallel universe stuff.

They should've paid Colin Baker a ton of cash and stuck a Harpo Marx wig on his head, just so a tearful Rose could've turned away from her last conversation with Tennant to be greeted with a hearty "Don't worry Rose, you'll always have me in this universe."

The Doctor said in "Rise of the Cybermen" that the Time Lords were able to easily hop back and forth between alternate realities, which might suggest that they only existed in our universe and sometimes popped into the others to police them.

As someone who hadn't heard of Catherine Tate at all, I also liked the cliffhanger. It was jarring, but in a good way.
(I had also never heard of Peter Kay in my life before "Love and Monsters", and thought he did an OK job.)

Oh, and RTD’s on his issues bandwagon again - this week it’s the effects of global warming as a result of too much parallel-universe hopping. Obviously. Which makes about as much sense as being able to drive all the way to Norway in a jeep.